A Two Sided Spectrum
by LoveLoveLovix
Summary: Flameflower and Iselin are two very different little girls- but both children with the power of Dragon Flame. When their power starts to manifest, history begins to repeat in a terrifying manner. Magix's only hope lies in hope itself- the hope that Flamie and Ise can overcome their differences and correct the mistakes their mothers made together. On hiatus.
1. And So It Begins

The girl had hair the color of light bluebells, eyes the color of smoke. That was all Bloom needed to see before she ran towards Flame as fast as her legs could take her.

"Flameflower!" she cried out desperately, hoping it wasn't too late for her daughter already. The vibrant red hair, the delicate blue eyes… they could all be destroyed by the one she sought to play with.

Bloom was there suddenly, scooping six-year-old Flame up into her arms. She ran with the girl across the playground, and sat her down on a picnic bench. She used her "angry mommy" face, hoping it would get the point across. "Princess Flameflower of Sparx-Eraklyon, you never play with or talk to that girl again. She is a very bad girl!"

Flame's eyes widened. "Iselin is nice, Mommy. She wanted to play with me instead of her ugly brother."

"Flameflower, we don't call people 'ugly,' is that clear, young lady?"

"But Iselin did…"

Bloom nodded, knowing Flame had emphasized the point, although she didn't know she had. "And that's why Iselin is a very bad girl, sweetie. Why don't we go home?"

"But Mommy, I don't wanna…"

Bloom put on a cheerful face, although she felt worse than she had since Flame had been born. "How about this? We'll call up Aunt Flora and see if she'll let us tour the Royal Gardens of Linphea. You love those Linphean flowers, Flammie."

"But there are never any kids there!"

"What about Cousin Hyacinth and Cousin Flutie?"

Flameflower wrinkled her nose in distaste. "Flutie and Hyacinth are babies. I'm almost seven. They're one."

"They just turned two."

"Two is one, two, three, four, five years younger than seven." Bloom's only daughter counted on her small fingers, holding them up for her mommy to see. "They don't even go to school. I'm in the first grade. I'm not even a kind'gardner anymore."

Bloom squeezed her daughter. "Nope. You passed kindergarten with flying colors."

"Like a rainbow?"

Bloom smiled. "Yes, Flammie. A rainbow."

Her daughter, her Flame, was safe.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Iselin watched Flammie's mom pick her up and carry her away. Afraid. _She must not be a good mom,_ she thought, biting her thumb nail. _Good moms don't get afraid of stuff. My mom isn't afraid of stuff. _

Iselin looked at her mother. Her hair, lighter than Ice's, was close to the same texture, but longer. Loose, it went to her ankles like a princess in those Earth fairy tales that her father told her before she went to bed, until she turned nine and declared that tuck-ins were for babies. Babies like her brother Armung, and her new friend Flammie.

Iselin's own hair was just below breast length, and was wavy- her mom wouldn't allow her to use magic to straighten it. "Iselin, that… power of yours… is too volatile. You could hurt yourself…" Ice's mom always trailed off then, but Ice heard the tone of her mind- that was one of the things that made the girl special.

It wasn't fear that her mom felt; no, Ice's mother could never be afraid. It was anxious, nervous- knowing that if Iselin would explode now, the parents could take her. But in time…

She sometimes used it, just a little bit, in rebellion. Her father normally stayed out of the way, convinced he had placed this curse on her. Her mother was, by unspoken rule, the one who would dispell any damage Ice caused, any thing that she'd break.

Any fires she'd start.

In total disregard of her name, or her bitter personality, Ice had an ability to create warmth- but not control it. She could set fires to anything she chose, yet couldn't contain them.

This is why Iselin was forbidden to use magic. She could, easily, destroy the entire realm- including herself- with just a clap of her hands. She knew, somehow, that she was powerful. After all, she was a product of Icy and Baltor, and they were two of the most magical people in existence.


	2. Meeting Again

"Mommy, I'm tired!" Flame yawned, as if to emphasize her point.

Bloom smiled as her daughter stood up and walked over to her. So strong. So beautiful. She had quite a lot of her father in her, although the hair she had definitely inherited from her mother. "Okay, sweetie, say good bye to Auntie Flora and everyone else, and we can go home."

Flame gave Flora a hug. "Byebye, Aunt Flora. Byebye, Uncle Helia. Bye, Hyacinth and Flutie."

Helia nodded politely, and the twins just threw alphabet blocks at each other, Flora using magic to prevent serious damage. "See you later, sweetie," she smiled. "And Bloom, honey, take care."

Bloom smiled and hugged her former roommate. "You too, Flora."

The redhaired girls- one six, one twenty-five- stepped out of the palace. "Do you have Mommy's hand?" Bloom asked Flameflower. The girl quickly slipped her hand into her mother's. Bloom smiled. "Transportus Back Homus!" she shouted.

As the darkness of Linphean night faded, a light grew, slowly. The world seemed to morph quickly, and Flame clutched Bloom's hand tighter. Bloom squeezed the little fingers reassuringly. Flame was new to this method of travel, after all.

A new land came into view, and Bloom gasped. The green building, although familiar to her, was like a dream. Some ancient memory of a world she left behind seven and a half years ago, once Flame was conceived.

_Bloom sat her Earth parents, Vanessa and Mike, down on the couch, and plopped her own body- very carefully- down on the TV chair. Sky was there, too, standing up and looking rather nervous. "Mom, Dad… Sky and I need to tell you something." _

_There was an awkward pause before Bloom could even go on. "I'm pregnant," she whispered, barely louder than Kiko's breath._

_Vanessa jumped up. "Pregnant? But you're only eighteen!"_

_Bloom wrung her ponytail nervously. "I'll be nineteen when she's born."_

"_You already know what sex it is?" Mike exclaimed. "You waited this long to tell us?"_

_Bloom cradled her tummy- shrunken by magic so she wouldn't get the "Ooh, juvenille delinquint AND a teenage mother" thing from Mitzi. "Dad, my baby is not an 'it.' My baby is a 'she.' Okay?"_

_Sky jumped in. "You know, it's not like she's your responsibility anymore, she's a legal adult, and…"_

_Mike was fuming, his face as red as Bloom's hair. "She is MY daughter, she IS my responsibility, if she lives to be seventy-two with that… that magical thing growing inside her!"_

_Vanessa, crying in the corner, could be heard faintly. "I'm only fourty-two, I don't look like a grandma!"_

_Bloom quivered, trying not to cry. She and Sky turned around and took a portal back to Magix, never to return to Earth._

Flame looked at her mother. "Mommy? What's wrong? Where are we?"

Bloom exhaled a quick, sharp breath. "Nowhere important, Flame. Just… a place I used to know."

She and her daughter had turned, when a car that, moments before, had been rolling past stopped abruptly. "Bloom… is that you?" a voice called.

Bloom bent as far as she could while walking. "Flameflower, don't respond. Okay?"

"Yes, Mommy," the girl said sleepily.

A shadow passed over the two briefly, then a woman stepped in front of them. Long dark hair framed a smooth face, and wire rimmed glasses perched on her nose. "It's me, Mitzi Perkins."

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Iselin crept down the stairs quietly. She didn't intend to let her mother know she was awake- and especially not ruin an opportunity to eavesdrop.

Sure enough, the voices continued. "Baltor, I think that Iselin should be… well, it's not that I don't love her but…"

Ice's dad laughed a humorless chuckle. "Iselin is 'too volatile.' Icy, you've been saying that for years."

"But Bloom's daughter… Fireflame? Floralfire? She's old enough now- you can see it."

_Old enough for what?_ Ice wondered.

"Bloom will be talking to her friends about it- at least let me call up Darce."

"NO!" Iselin's father roared. "Darcy is married, she's given up for good, just like you and I. If we get everyone together, we'll wind up in the Omega Dimension again before you can say 'Army of Decay!' No contact with Darcy, none with Stormy… what are we even doing together?"

"Love…" the female voice said weakly.

The tenor voice was softer. "Yes. Love. We need to show that to Iselin. She's growing up in the type of enviroment you didn't want her to grow up in. Arguing, bickering, overprotective… sibling rivalries."

It lapsed into silence. Ice climbed back into her bed with more questions than answers.


	3. Back Into Habits

Bloom's eyes widened. She could see it… but could she believe it? Mitzi Perkins was the girl who made her school days a living nightmare. And now, this woman talked to her as if they were long lost friends.

Mitzi, if in fact that was who it was, crouched down to meet Flameflower's drowsy face, tuned out to the conversation going on. "Who's this?"

"My daughter." Bloom decided to trust her ex-enemy on a whim.

Mitzi smiled. "What's her name?"

Bloom paused. To tell… or not to tell? "Schuyler," she said at last, going by Flame's middle name.

"Ooh, can I call her Sky?"

"That's her father's name."

Mitzi leaned in towards Bloom. "Sky? Anyone I know?"

"Nope."

"Oh, you met him in that foreign exchange program you were in?"

"Yeah."

Bloom was suddenly uncomfortable and made an effort to change the subject. "How are you?"

"Great," Mitzi beamed. "I teach math at Gardenia High, and I've got my fourth child on the way, but it's not like I've been having kids one after the other. Aidan, Nadia, and Diana are triplets. They're names are all anagrams for each other's, isn't that adorable?"

Bloom sighed, "Yes, Mitzi. It is. Well, Flame and I have to go now…"

"Ooh, Flame, is that what you call her?"

"Um, sure. See you later."

Mitzi frowned. "Oh, you're going to see the Peters'? I thought you didn't talk anymore…"

_Damn that small town gossip._ "We didn't, but we're going to try to get into the habit. See you."

And, if only to escape Mitzi, Bloom rang her parent's doorbell, holding Flame in her arms.


	4. Uncovering

The door creaked open a moment later, and a brunette woman of about fifty looked out. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but no sound came out, sparing a quick, breathless gasp.

"Mom!" Bloom exclaimed, worried. Was Vanessa having a heart attack?

"Oh, God…" Vanessa murmured. "Bloom, we thought we'd never see you again…" She looked at Bloom, moving down, with the eyes first. However, seeing Flame's hand clutched in Bloom's, she stopped. "That's her?" Vanessa asked crudely.

Bloom squeezed Flameflower's hand protectively. "Yes. Her name is Princess Flameflower Schuyler of Sparx-Eraklyon, but we call her Flame. She's your only grandchild, Mom."

Although Vanessa had probably hated the thought of this unknown girl for seven and a half years, she seemed mystified as she touched Flame's straight red hair. "She looks just like you," Vanessa murmured. "Just like you when you were six."

"Almost seven," Bloom corrected automatically, as she had learned from Flame. "She's growing up too quickly."

Flame was quiet, too tired to comment on anything Mitzi or Vanessa had said about her. Bloom picked her up. "I know we haven't stayed in touch, but could Flame take a quick nap while we catch up?"

Vanessa eyed her daughter suspiciously. "What are you doing up so late? In Magix, it's around ten at night, isn't it?"

"We were visiting a friend, and have been detoured by various things."

Vanessa took Flame from Bloom and rocked her gently. "Flameflower Schuyler. Flameflower Schyuler. Flame." She said the name repetedly, as if it would make her long-lost granddaughter more real.

Looking Bloom in the eye- adult to adult, Bloom noticed- Vanessa pursed her lips. "You guys can stay for a while. But I have no idea how your father will react if he sees you. Bloom. You're very lucky, his shift just started. But if it's a slow day at the office…"

"The office?"

"He is Secretary of Fireman's Affairs for the state of New York. It's a big promotion- you should be proud of him."

"Wow," Bloom said. She followed her adoptive mother to her old bedroom, and let Vanessa kiss Flame good-night. The two then walked into the living room- the room the troll had destroyed on that fateful night she had found her Winx. Vanessa sat down and stared at Bloom for a moment, looking at her short red pixie cut and the golden locket Flame and Sky gave her last Christmas that she never took off.

And she asked the question that was inevitable. "What are you doing in Gardenia?"

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Iselin couldn't sleep. Even with Armung's careful breathing she had come to love, even though Cerbeus, her puppy, was quiet, it seemed as if the night would never end. The girl turned on her bedside lamp and took out a thick book she had found in her mother's high school keepsake box. _Powers of the Universe, and Those Who Posess Them_.

One page had been dog-eared, so she turned to it first. Ice didn't even know what the book was, but she had run out of things to read, and this was something new. The heading said _Dragonfire._

Iselin began to read about the legend of the Great Dragon- wasn't that just a bedtime story? The power of the realm Sparx. The magic than ran through their royals. And the darker side of it.

The fires they started when they were mad. The quick tempers. The fear it ignited in the people who didn't fully understand it, and even sometimes in those who did.

Why did her mother have such a book? Was this Iselin's power- the power that was so taboo in their household, that was punishable by a day locked in her bedroom? Was this why even though Iselin's mother could freeze things just by batting her eye, fire extinguishers still covered their house?

_Was this what her parents tried so desperately to hide from her?_


	5. Decisions To Be Made

"Mom, I know you'll kill me for saying this, but it was an accident."

Vanessa leaned forward. "An accident?" she repeated coldly.

"Well… yes. I used "Transportus Back Homus," meaning to return to the palace in Sparx, but I came here instead. I don't know why. Maybe it was because…" Bloom stopped short.

Vanessa prodded her on. "Because?"

The young woman looked at her shoes. "Well… because I've really been missing you guys lately. It's hard. All the Winx except Layla have their own children, so they can't find any time to just hand and chat anymore, and Layla is off discovering new realms. I've been really lonely, really stressed. I miss the days when I could just come home for a while and be your daughter again."

"Yes, I suppose that's reasonable." Vanessa nodded. "Now, tell me about my… granddaughter." She struggled with the word.

A smile brightened Bloom's serious face. "Flame is the most beautiful girl on the face of any realm. She just started first grade on Sparx, where she lives most of the time. She takes summers on Eraklyon with Sky."

"You divorced?"

"No… it's more of a trial separation, just to see how we do. Sky still has some feelings for Diaspro, I think."

Vanessa moved from the couch to the loveseat where her daughter sat and embraced her. "It's been tough lately, hasn't it, Bloombug?"

The redheaded woman- barely more than a girl- allowed a few tears to escape. "Yeah, it has."

"You should go get some sleep, Bloom. I'll break the news to your dad. I think… that once he meets Flameflower, he won't be quite as mad."

Bloom sniffled. "It's fine. Flame and I should be going. The staff will wonder where we are."

"Are you sure you have to go so soon?"

Bloom clutched her mother's hands- since when had Vanessa gotten so grandmotherly? "I promise I'll come back soon, and Dad can meet Flammie. Okay?"

Vanessa nodded. She wasn't sure if she believed it, but she had to.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Iselin dropped the book onto her bed. _Dragonfire._ Even the name sounded so taboo, so dangerous.

As the book dropped to the black comfortor, a piece of paper fell out. Ice picked it up.

Unfolding it, she saw a page written in her mother's delicate script. Quite a lot had been crossed out, scratched out, rendered unreadable, but one line remained. A name.

_Bloom Peters? _

Who was Bloom Peters? Was it a person, or some type of flower- I mean, who names their kid "Bloom?"

There was a date, too- December first, 1998. Man, that was eleven years ago, when her mother was like a senior in Cloud Tower, or something. It was _old. _

Ice shoved the book under her bed. But she was even more restless now than ever. Questions echoed in her head that no nine year old should have to answer. Who was Bloom Peters? What was the Dragonfire? And who was she? Iselin? The Dragonfire girl? Or just Baltor and Icy's only daughter_?_


End file.
